Geosk™  Platform Provides Customers with the Largest Geospatial Data Catalogue to Power Business Analysis, Location-based Marketing and Risk Management;

Cloud-based Access Means Data is Always Current and Universally Available

WINDSOR, BERKS – 4 AUGUST, 2010—Pitney Bowes Business Insight today introduced the Geosk™ Platform, the geospatial industry’s first location-based Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) offering. The Geosk Platform boasts the most comprehensive geospatial data catalogue and delivers it via an easy-to-use, cloud-based portal that lets customers pay as they go. With the Geosk Platform, customers can immediately access and integrate the most current geospatial data into business analyses, location-based marketing programs and risk management calculations. A one-stop shop for geospatial data on demand, the Geosk Platform helps organisations acquire, serve and grow customer relationships by making it easy to source, access, buy, use and manage location-based data.

The Geosk Platform provides access to a comprehensive data catalogue that includes both free and fee-based geospatial data from Pitney Bowes Business Insight as well as content from third-party data providers such as Ordnance Survey and TomTom. For data providers, the Geosk Platform will function as an online delivery channel for their products, providing unprecedented access to data consumers around the globe. The new content management service, Geosk™ Library, will also enable enterprise organisations to store, share and manage geospatial data from a cloud-based content library.

“As the industry’s largest geospatial data resource, Geosk will revolutionise the way organisations search for, access, share, manage and use location-based data worldwide,” said Scott Robinson, Director, Global Data Products at Pitney Bowes Business Insight. “Location-based data is constantly changing and being updated, making it critical for organisations to capitalise on this information as swiftly as possible in order to remain competitive. The Geosk Platform enables organisations in financial services, public sector, insurance, retail and telecommunications to instantly access the specific data they need at significantly reduced cost in order to perform more effective business analysis, location-based marketing, risk management and more.”

Geosk Platform Boosts Value of Customers’ Existing Applications by Integrating Geospatial Data

The Geosk Platform will help organisations overcome problems and inefficiencies traditionally associated with finding, accessing, using, managing and maintaining geospatial data. Identifying, viewing, navigating and reviewing the various types of data available in different formats from multiple geospatial data vendors typically takes hours or days depending on the size and complexity of the data required. The Geosk Platform will enable any GIS user or geospatial data consumer to quickly and easily identify the specific data required, in the right form, at the right level of aggregation, delivering data to the user in as little as 60 seconds so it can be transformed and customised in the specific format of their choice.

The new platform supports leading GIS mapping and analysis applications, including MapInfo Professional® and MapInfo® Stratus™, as well as applications from other GIS vendors. It also integrates with CRM systems, allowing PBBI customers to benefit from combining location intelligence with other information on their own customers in order to obtain deeper insights that improve business performance and provide a competitive advantage.

The Geosk Marketplace will initially be available to MapInfo Professional® v10.5 customers. They will be able to search and access data online directly through the catalog browser icon included in the MapInfo Professional v10.5 toolbar.

To deliver the Geosk Platform, Pitney Bowes Business Insight is partnering with WeoGeo, a leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. PBBI’s Geosk Library and Geosk Marketplace are custom implementations of WeoGeo products, which help enterprises rapidly manage and transform their professional mapping content. WeoGeo’s SaaS solutions are deployed on Amazon Web Services, helping ensure reliability and scalability.

Immediate, Cost-effective Access to Up-to-date Location Information Powers Better Decisions

Benefits of Pitney Bowes Business Insight’s Geosk Platform include:
Faster Time to Value—Customers can find the specific data in the desired format quickly and easily. Data is delivered to the user in as little as 60 seconds, helping users utilise data quickly to gain deeper insights into customers, resources and facilities.
Enhanced Access to Data—MapInfo Professional v10.5 customers will be able to easily access the Geosk Marketplace by using the Metadata browser. With the browser, organisations can search and open map files by only typing a few keywords, dramatically reducing the complexity of identifying the desired data.
Cost Effective Data Delivery—Sourcing, accessing, delivering and updating geospatial data via a cloud-based service removes the costs associated with traditional CD- or DVD-based data delivery methods.
Affordable Content Management—Organisations will be able to store, manage and share their geospatial data from a cloud-based content library, either hosted in the cloud or delivered by a Pitney Bowes Business Insight appliance stored behind a company’s own firewall. The Geosk Library will enable organizations to manage multiple files proactively, freeing up time to focus on analysing data versus searching for it.
Identify Potential Revenue Sources—Organisations will be able to upload and share their content within the Geosk Marketplace to either populate a specific market or with the correct permissions in place, to enhance third-party data and resell it.
 
Availability

MapInfo Professional v10.5 customers now have access to the Geosk Marketplace. General availability for the Geosk Marketplace and Geosk Library will be in the Q4 timeframe. For more information, please visit http://go.pbinsight.com/geosk.